Couple arrested in connection to SLO County courthouse bomb threat, police say
A couple arrested on drug and weapons charges in September 2019 have been identified as suspects in Wednesday’s bomb threat that led to an evacuation of the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department announced late Thursday that Derek Atkins, 30, of Los Osos was arrested on suspicion of making a false bomb threat and conspiracy.
His girlfriend, 40-year-old Carrie Maggard of Los Osos was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, police said.
The department said that after releasing surveillance photos of the suspects on Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office told area agencies that Atkins was the subject in the photo.
On Thursday, San Luis Obispo investigators went to Los Osos, where they conducted a traffic stop after witnessing Maggard inside a vehicle, police said.
Maggard was detained and allegedly admitted to making the bomb threat to the courthouse.
Police say that, at the time of the bomb threat, Atkins was at the courthouse and scheduled to turn himself in to serve a prison sentence on an unrelated case.
The bomb threat was made shortly after bailiffs took Atkins into custody, the new release said.
Additional conspiracy charges have been requested for Atkins, who remains in custody pending transfer to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
As of late Thursday, Maggard remained in San Luis Obispo County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
The threat from a woman came via phone to the County Government Center at about 10:45 a.m. Wednesday. The courthouse was immediately evacuated in the middle of hearings, causing scheduling disruptions as cases had to be continued to Thursday.
The court reopened after bomb-sniffing dogs swept the building and downtown city streets were blocked off around the courthouse.
Atkins and Maggard were both arrested in September 2019 on suspicion of drug and weapons charges after a Sheriff’s Office raid on a Cayucos home on Oceano Boulevard.
The Sheriff’s Office said at the time that the search yielded scales, baggies, additional paraphernalia indicative of narcotics sales, and street-level-sales amounts of methamphetamine.
In addition, deputies found a packaged substance that tested “presumptive positive” for fentanyl, a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid, a news release said.
A loaded firearm was also located inside the home, as well as burglary tools and suspected stolen property.
Atkins was in court Wednesday to plead no contest to charges related to that arrest, and had already been sentenced to serve up to two years in state prison when the court was evacuated, court records show.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
